


ama me fideliter

by asael



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Marriage, Multi, TRK spoilers, mentioned Henry Cheng/Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, post-trk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 19:48:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6821653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asael/pseuds/asael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gansey is shocked to learn that Ronan and Adam have been keeping a secret from him for years. Post-TRK, spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ama me fideliter

**Author's Note:**

> [I imagined my OTP.](http://mistrusts.tumblr.com/post/144202147963)
> 
> Thanks to Rae and Kels, as usual! Title means 'love me faithfully'.

Gansey sighs the sigh of the emotionally distraught, arranging himself carefully on the comfortable old couch. Everything at the Barns is comfortable, unless it was specifically designed - dreamed up - not to be. He could take a nap right here, sleep away all his problems, except that Ronan has just flopped down into the nearby chair and rudely put his feet on Gansey’s couch. Gansey sighs again.

“I don’t understand why it’s such a sticking point for her, I really don’t. I’ve told her everything Blue’s said against it, and Helen still refuses to accept it. Why is it so very important that we get married?”

Ronan’s only response is a disinterested grunt. He lifts a beer to his lips, glancing out the window at Chainsaw pulling leaves off a bush, for all the world paying no attention at all. Luckily Gansey has known him far too long to be bothered. He continues as if Ronan were listening, because Gansey knows that he is.

“Blue didn’t even come to the fundraiser this time. You’d think Helen would leave me alone for the night.”

Except, of course, Gansey knows better. When Helen gets an idea in her head, she can be frighteningly determined. And she’s wanted to plan Gansey and Blue’s wedding for years now, long enough that Blue refuses to even listen to conversations involving the word ‘marriage’. 

_I refuse to legally bind myself to you or anyone, Gansey. Love doesn’t require that kind of thing, and neither do we,_ she’d said, very firmly and finally. Appealing to Henry had done nothing, as he was deeply interested in (entertained by?) Blue’s principles. Blue had then pointed out that they couldn’t all get married, which was unfair, and the matter had been laid to rest.

Until Gansey flew in for Helen’s fundraiser, where it had all been revived again. Blue, as smart as ever, is in Seoul with Henry instead. Probably touring ancient buildings and learning about the Joseon dynasty. Gansey is viciously jealous, even though he doesn’t regret taking the opportunity to visit the Barns.

“Really, we live in enlightened times. You’d think she’d get bored and start pressuring me to marry Henry instead. Or tell Adam it’s about time you two made honest men of each other. You’ve been together just as long as we have.” Gansey sighs. It’s unfair. It really is.

Ronan’s still watching Chainsaw. Everything about him is casual, unconcerned. “Nah, man. We got married like six years ago.”

He sips his beer. Gansey stares, stunned into silence.

It could be a joke, except Ronan doesn’t lie.

“You _what_?” Gansey says finally, unable to contain his dismay.

Ronan looks at him, then, and smiles. No, that’s not a smile. It’s definitely a smirk. “No big deal, Dick. It was some kind of financial aid thing, it looked better on his shit if we got married. So I figured, why not?” He shrugs. “Not like I was gonna marry anyone else.”

Ronan has done a lot of unexpected, unacceptable things over the years. Second to crashing the Pig, this might be the worst.

“And you simply didn’t think you needed to tell anyone? To tell _me_?” Gansey isn’t sure whether to feel hurt or just mad. All his Helen-related angst is gone in an instant.

Ronan, of course, is totally unconcerned. “Like I said, no big deal.”

It is a big deal. It is a very big deal. Gansey opens his mouth to express that emotion, and at that moment the door swings open. Adam comes in, followed by Opal, both of them a bit grubby from feeding the animals but smiling.

Opal doesn’t quite seem to grow at the same rate as a normal girl. It’s been about ten years, but rather than a teenager, she looks about twelve. Older than she did when she arrived, but not at old as she rightfully should be, and so Gansey shuts his mouth. It seems extremely inappropriate to interrogate Ronan and Adam about their marriage in front of their daughter. Or whatever she is.

But he shoots Ronan a look that says _this isn’t over_. He can’t believe this. Any of it.

They eat dinner, chat about other things. Opal explains that one of the cows will give birth soon, and eats half a spoon, a habit they can’t seem to break her of. Adam talks about his cases, the pro bono legal work he’s doing for a battered women’s and children’s center. Ronan tells a deeply inappropriate anecdote about Declan and his wife, and Gansey regales them with stories of his recent sojourn to Finland.

It’s a pleasant meal, but Gansey doesn’t forget. He waits until they’re finished, until Ronan is locking the barns and Opal is upstairs and Adam is washing dishes, and then he corners Adam in the kitchen.

He doesn’t prevaricate. “You’re _married_?” All his dismay is in his voice, honest with Adam and Ronan the way he is with few others.

Adam looks up and dries his hand on a dishtowel. As he does so, it whistles a familiar tune, and Adam rolls his eyes. One would think that after ten years Ronan would get tired of internet memes, but that’s not the case.

“Yeah,” Adam says, and he seems almost as unconcerned as Ronan, except there’s something a little uncertain in his eyes, a little worried. “A while back. It just made sense.”

“It just made sense, except you didn’t even tell me?” Gansey is aware that he sounds hurt, but he can’t quite stop it. He _is_ hurt that they kept this from him.

“Because it doesn’t change anything,” Adam says, leaning back against the counter. “We weren’t gonna have a wedding or a honeymoon or anything like that. It wasn’t that kind of thing. It helped out my financial aid, that’s all.”

For a moment, Adam is silent, looking at Gansey. Then he continues. ”It was just a legal thing to help me out. We were already gonna spend our lives together. We didn’t need government approval to do that.”

Gansey softens a little, hearing that. How can he not? It’s true, of course, and they all know it - they’d known it early on. How could anything compare to what they’d all shared? They’ve all made other friends, but no friendship can truly match something forged with magic and pain and prophecy.

Love is no different. And Adam went into things with his eyes open, thinking it over as he thought everything over, choosing Ronan with the full knowledge that Ronan Lynch doesn’t do casual, that it was all or nothing, that he was making a promise, even if neither of them quite believed it then.

But they believe it now, and here they are. Dreamer and magician, farmer and lawyer, settled with each other and happy in a way Gansey once wasn’t sure he’d ever see.

He supposes it’s true. They didn’t need a ceremony or a legally binding oath to be married. How very Adam, to do it for entirely practical reasons, and how very Ronan, to shrug and go along with it because there’s no reason not to.

Gansey sighs, relents. He can’t stay mad, not really. He can see why they wouldn’t see the need to tell him - or anyone. “So nobody knows?”

“Declan knows,” Ronan says from the kitchen doorway. Gansey didn’t hear the door, too distracted by Adam and his own thoughts.. “He took care of all the legal shit for the Barns before Adam took it over, so we had to tell him.”

“Nobody else,” Adam says, and smiles faintly. There’s almost no pain in it anymore. “We haven’t got parents to tell, and there wasn’t a ceremony.”

“You ought to have one,” Gansey says, and smiles. “Why don’t I call Helen right now?”

Adam’s eyes widen. “No, god, anything but that.” There’s laughter in his voice, free and easy. Gansey will never get tired of hearing that.

It seems Ronan won’t, either. He crosses the kitchen to lean on the counter next to Adam, shoulders touching. They exchange a look, and Adam leans into him a little, and Gansey allows himself a moment to feel simply and purely happy that his friends found each other, so long ago.

“I suppose I wouldn’t inflict that on anyone, much less my two best friends,” Gansey says. “But really, you should at least get rings.”

“I work on a farm,” Ronan says, the tone in his voice making it clear that this should have been an obvious objection.

“Yes,” Gansey says, “but Adam doesn’t, and if he had a ring Helen’s single friends would be far less interested in him.”

Adam laughs, but Ronan looks speculative for a moment. Or angry. Maybe both.

Gansey looks at them for a moment longer, marveling over it. Adam and Ronan, married. Well, they sort of had been for awhile, hadn’t they? He shouldn’t have gotten worked up over it. They - all of them - have always been unconventional. This is no different, and really, it fits. It seems right.

They say their good nights, and Gansey heads to bed. He’ll be on a plane to Seoul the next day, and he has an idea.

Unconventional. He can do unconventional.

Rings for Blue and Henry both, and no ceremonies unless they want them, and nothing legally binding at all. Only a promise, a promise of something that’s always been true.

He likes the idea of that.

Months later, when he sees Adam again, they’re both wearing rings.

**Author's Note:**

> This is grossly inaccurate for cute fictional purposes. In reality, when you're married you have to report both you and your spouse's income on the FAFSA and the aid offered is based on total combined income. What I'm saying is, don't marry a millionaire who owns his own farm in order to get better financial aid.


End file.
